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Remember how I told you that life goes by quickly and you should make the most of it while you can and use every opportunity? Well, I decided to do that exactly!

The first thing to do will be running a healthy life, so as step one I started exercising. Due to my specific job, I can’t exactly go to the gym often, so I decided for exercising at home and doing aerobic exercises and other cardio stuff, but I have to tell you that, as soon as the couple of days went by, I started feeling so much better, fitter and stronger. Physical activity should be a very important aspect of everyone’s life, and since I’m a single person, err I’m fairly limited in some aspects of physical activity…but exercising helps me feel so much better of myself and, to be honest, I put up with flying often more easily. So, advice to everyone, exercise!

Of course, nutrition is also the important thing. Now, I don’t believe in those strict regimes, not for me at least, as with all the different time zones and travelling, it’s impossible to stick to them. But, on the other side, you don’t have to eat all those greasy meat stuff that will just mess with your organism (or send you to the bathroom). Take a banana here, an apple there, drink a lot of orange juice instead of beer or Coca Cola (this was a hard one to give up) and I guarantee you, you will feel much better in no time.

Of course, everything comes from the mind, so ensure to endure a healthy mind by laughing a lot and spending time with dear and interesting people. Love, M

Being a flight attendant, you don’t always work with same people, but there is a pretty young pilot (and when I say young, I think a couple years older than me) who sometimes flies with me on routes from New York to Amsterdam. We never did a lot of talking, but I knew that he had a little daughter and that he is an American who lives in New York.

Well, it turns out I will have an opportunity to find out more about James. Yes, that’s his name. Remember the roses that were waiting for me when I got to the apartment in Amsterdam? Yep, you are right, he is my secret admirer! To be honest, I just don’t know is that a good thing.

This is how it all happened. While we were in Amsterdam, he asked me to show him around a little bit, as he had no friends in the city. I accepted it and headed to the place where we should meet. He was waiting for me with wrapped chocolates in his hand, which had a note on them saying ‘for Matilde’ in Dutch. I recognized the handwriting from the note on the roses and figured out it was him.

He’s a nice, warm guy, who’s by no means assailant so I didn’t run off, instead of that I gave him the opportunity to explain. He told me he was recently divorced (hence the daughter), but his wife left him for another guy, since he was often away from home. We actually had a nice chat, although I’m not sure I’m into him (as a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure I’m not), but we made a deal to just stay in contact for now.

It’s actually a complicated situation and I don’t like those, but he really made my day, because I really like men who didn’t forget how to behave towards women.

Most times I’m the flight attendant on route from New York to Amsterdam, but my company sometimes gives me other routes to, which makes it possible to see some pretty amazing places. One of the last places I visited was Berlin, the capital of Germany.

Even though it is just next to my home country the Netherlands, I never had the opportunity to visit Germany. This time we had a day to ourselves in Berlin, so the three of us, my colleagues Rose and Diane and me, decided to go for a picnic. Our pilot visited Germany earlier and told us to go to Grunewald (hope I’m writing this right) if we want a green forested area.

He wasn’t wrong, Grunewald is an incredibly big park with trees and everything and is really an incredible place to just relax, it so peaceful that you have no clue you are still in a big city. We hiked through the woods for hours talking about various things and checking out some guys with mandatory remarks on their looks (if you thought only guys do that, you were wrong).

I also tried something for the first time in my life. I’m talking about horseback riding which, if you don’t count the ponies in my childhood, I never did until now. I’m not so fond or riding a horse since I’m really afraid of falling down. But, my brownish friend and I immediately liked each other, it was love at first sight and he was really gentle to me, so I got to my destination safely.

It was a beautiful day, we laughed really hard, reminiscing all the nice and funny things that happened to us. On days like this I just cherish being a flight attendant.

I have to say, most of the people travelling on my flights are so positive and nice that I really couldn’t be more proud and happy of the job I’m doing. But, on the other hand, there’s the dark side of the coin and, from time to time, I’m just annoyed how some people (read: men) can behave to others (read: women).

What happened? It was a route from New York to Amsterdam, a normal flight until I have notices a middle aged man looking at me weirdly. I could recognize that kind of look and I already felt kind of molested, but I assured myself it was just a delusion since I was pretty tired. But while I was standing next to him (he was by the aisle) pouring drinks he faked making himself comfortable in the seat and bumped my behind with his hand. I was learned to respect the passengers and, then again, there was the possibility it was really an accident (no, it wasn’t), so after I gave him an angry look and he responded with an unconvincing ‘Sorry’, I just said that it is not a problem and smiled. Although, I guy sitting next to him seemed to notice what he tried to do and was hardly controlling his laugh in this situation.

The major incident happened not long afterwards. He asked for help and when I came by to see what he needs, he actually said he has been having problems unlocking his zipper and could use some help in the bathroom! I was so furious, but also felt ashamed so I managed to stutter the answer ‘We don’t offer a helping hand’, which was received with a laugh from the guy next to him and, luckily, a no comment from the man in question. Needless to say, I couldn’t wait for the flight to end as I would blush each time when I was near him. Why are men such pigs, can’t they just be nice?

Not in the real sense of that word, but still. See, people often think that layovers are just one big party for flight attendances, but in reality everything is so much different. Our layovers are most often real short and, besides sleeping and showering, we don’t always have time for anything else.

But I’m also not going to lie to you, it happens. Rarely, but it does. My colleague was celebrating a birthday (something that I don’t do for several years already) and decided to throw the party with some drinks in a hotel in Frankfurt, where we were to spend the night.

Of course, you should have in mind that when I say party, it’s just means getting together in one place and talking and when I say drinks, I actually think of Cola and other juices. The company has very strict rules about drinking (and I agree with them), so we always obey them. But, the bonus this time was chips, yay!

It was actually really nice. Despite you might think, we don’t have that much time to talk with each other and really bond and this was one of those moments. Instead of being slam-clickers (you know, people that remain locked in their hotel rooms), we decided to socialize.

We had a pretty good reason, since it was Diane’s birthday, but still. Oh, I should probably mention that we bought her some lingerie that we believe will be put to good use soon enough, as soon as she sees her boyfriend. I really hope we will throw these ‘parties’ more often as sometimes flight attendants feel pretty lonely, despite they are always in contact with people, and this way we also become friends, not just colleagues.

I’m just such a romantic. The cutest thing happened on my latest flight, a guy from New York proposed to his girlfriend. Sean (that’s his name) told me that they met on the plane and that was the best moment of their lives up until then, since he wanted to create another unforgettable memory for them. And he totally did it! He asked us to let him into the cockpit and call her on plane’s public address system to come there. She seemed surprised while coming, but look shocked as she saw him kneeling in front of her. Fortunately, she recovered long enough to say yes and his putting the ring around her finger is one of the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in a plane.

But, not all is cute, since various awkward situations happen also, like drunk passengers hitting on you inappropriately or worse. I’m going to share with you the craziest thing that ever happened to me, maybe not only during a flight, but in general. I found an iPad on the toilet! When I looked at it at first I noticed all these leovegas online casino slot machine apps installed on it like the mega fortune slot. Of course that’s not the weird part, the crazy thing is that the iPad was full of Asian porn movies downloaded from the porn tube website AsianPornVideos.xxx . I totally get it, men watch porn and this was a long flight so sometimes you just can’t resist your urges, but this was a little too much. As it turned out later, I was not totally right with my assumption, since when we announced that a iPad was lost, a woman came to claim it! Actually, a very nicely dressed middle-aged woman, so you can imagine my surprise. Oh, well, I guess it all comes with the job. I will maybe right about other funny things that happen in some other post, have to go now. Ciao! 🙂

When I was little, I dreamt about becoming an actress, a real world wide celebrity that will walk on red carpets and get photographed in stunning red dresses and a dark red lipstick. In my imagination, one of the things that I had as an actress is a stalker. But in a positive way, you know, like a guy who would leave me presents wherever I go and stuff like that.

Well, my life didn’t turn out to be that bad after all, since I travel the world and visit some really beautiful places, but I’m glad at least one thing from my dreams as a child came true. Dear readers, yours truly has a secret admirer! Either that or Max is messing with me, but I don’t think he would do that.

What happened? After my latest flight to Amsterdam, I went to my apartment to rest a little bit from all the haste that usually comes with a job of a flight attendant. But, there it was on my doorstep – a bouquet of flowers waiting for me. Actually, at first I thought it was a mistake, but it said Matilde Visser on a little note. Unfortunately, it said nothing else.

One, two, three….I counted eleven red roses that smelled beautiful. I immediately brought them in and put them in water and then called Max, only to see that he also was genuinely surprised when I told him I got a present. I assumed he gave somebody my address, that was a logical thing to think, but I guess I was wrong. Maybe it’s better like this, now I have to think about who might be my secret admirer…too bad I actually have absolutely no clue to start with.

I’m a girl. I like shopping. That’s the whole wisdom. But, being a flight attendant gives me one advantage compared to other women, I have a fairly regular access to duty free shops and boutiques.

One of the duty-free zones I just have to praise is the one in Frankfurt. I’m not that often in Germany, because I usually fly the airplanes to Amsterdam, but from time to time I have the opportunity to wander through the duty-free zone.

My weakness are bags. I know for most women is shoes, but I like the fact that I’m unusual, so I’m proud of the fact bags are my favorite. I have tons of them, branded, unbranded, small, big, white, black, colorful ones and I think that every time I get myself a new one. Outside of work uniforms, I also love short skirts (I’m fairly tall and my legs are fairly long, so I tend to use my attributes) in combination with a matching blouse. As most women, I’m not immune to good shoes with high heels. Women are just more elegant with heels on and I believe a woman should use every opportunity to wear them. And, that is why I decided to surprise myself with new shoes! This time, the red ones 🙂

But please don’t think I’m selfish, as I always think about my family and friends. My brother Max always gets a good wine or a pack of cigars and my friend Marta can’t wait for me to come back and bring her a chocolate package. She basically waits me at the gate, just like a dog, so these items are also a must on my shop list for a duty-free zone.

I don’t like rains. It can be hot or cold, but you can be outside and using and enjoying life and its every moment. But, as soon as the rain comes down, nobody seems to be able to find where they lost their smiles and their mood, and we are all gloomy and melancholic. I believe I was having one of those days.

I was just sitting at the window staring into practically empty streets as the rain was showering them heavily and thought about life. Yeah, I tend to do that sometimes. Even though I definitely am a happy and fulfilled person, sometimes, usually when I’m with myself, I also lose my mood. I guess we all have our moments.

My friend from childhood is getting married soon. I grew up in Amsterdam and Dennis was living in the building, in the apartment just below ours. He and my brother Max were better friends then we did, but I was constantly seeing him and, somewhere around 13 or 14, I also started seeing his curly blond hair and blue eyes. In the next two or three years, we started greeting each other with an unusual ear to ear smile whenever we meet. Finally, we were together at some kind of a house party and he threw me a compliment about my look, which knocked me off my feet. I think that’s pretty much the furthest we’ve ever gotten, as far as the love goes. And I know the chances of something happening are slimmer and slimmer, but I just didn’t expect him to get married. Not so fast.

I guess what I want to say is that life goes by quickly and you must learn how to recognize your opportunities and use them. That’s the advice I will also take in the future.

I could have been part of an amazing love story. Cliché, maybe, but still a love story and that’s something us women fall to. Anyway, it was just a regular flight and I was sipping drinks to the passengers, when I accidently spilled hot tea all over the pants of a guy sitting by the aisle (yes, that place exactly). I gazed at him before I started serving drinks and he looked gorgeous – white shirt, a suit and a nice dark blue skinny tie and I had to tell Marta how beautiful he is. But then, all blushed, I just wanted to run away as far as I can, even if it means jumping out of a plane.

Fortunately, he just smiled at me and although I thought it was from all the warmth around his…you know, it turned out that he liked me. We talked a little bit during the flight and he seemed like a nice guy. Besides, he is a CFO of the anonymous proxy company BrowsingAnonymousOnline.com , so apparently he is a pretty good catch. But, that wasn’t the main reason I decided to go out on a date with him, just so you know ha, ha.

A couple of days after the flight he invited me on a date (with a plea to keep his pants dry this time) and we went to a fancy restaurant. I don’t know if it was from all the hot coffee or the pressure in the plane, but he seemed rather dull and I was bored out of my mind. Maybe hot coffee can get a guy out of his pants, but if you want a girl out of her pants you need to know how to make her laugh. He didn’t do it once, so I didn’t have any other choice but to forget him quickly.